What is continuous monitoring?
Security that's always on. Many organizations have discovered that while traditional security monitoring systems can help information assurance efforts, they are rarely enough to react to today’s external, targeted, persistent attacks. As a result, leading organizations are beginning to replace point-in-time audits and compliance checks with a continuous monitoring program to help them prioritize controls and provide visibility into current threats.
The concept of monitoring information system security has long been recognized as sound management practice. Organizations review their information systems’ security controls to ensure that system changes do not have a significant negative impact on security, security plans remain effective after a change, and security controls continue to perform as intended.
Continuous monitoring goes further than a traditional periodic assessment or “snapshot” audit by continuously monitoring transactions and controls, so that weak, poorly designed, or poorly implemented controls can be corrected or replaced sooner rather than later, thus enhancing an organization’s risk profile.